‘Late Show’ Host David Letterman Battled Depression For Years

David Letterman may be all smiles on his late-night talk show, but the New York funnyman recently revealed that he’s struggled with depression for several years. “It’s different than feeling sad. It’s different than feeling blue,” Letterman told Charlie Rose during an episode of ‘CBS This Morning.’ “It’s really like a friend of mine says, it’s the world with 20/20 vision.”

The 65-year-old host said he started fighting depression decades ago with medication, but stopped taking it when he was on other drugs to fight a bout of shingles. “Part of the concoction of drugs they give you to fight that pain are pretty serious,” he revealed. “And I just got tired of taking them. So I stopped taking them.”

In a strange twist of fate, Letterman says that his depression greatly improved after the birth of his son Harry, now 9, and he wishes he would have taken on fatherhood sooner. “I wish I hadn’t been so gosh-darn single-minded,” the comedian said of his decades-long resistance to marriage and children. “Because when your focus is that tight, you miss a lot of what’s going on around you.”

“I just thought, when the topic would come up, I can’t do both,” he continued. “I can’t try to have a successful television show and be a father. And I was wrong about that — because as difficult as being a father is, it’s entirely complementary with everything else in your life.”